Monday, December 30, 2013

This Yamaha F70 was new in the box in November, 2011 and currently has 712 hours. Oil changes were done every 100 hours and with new impeller and thermostats installed by Gulfside Marine on Matlacha every 200 hours. The engine still runs perfectly and I'm simply repowering my BT3 with a new F70. NADA average retail on this motor is currently listed at $6100. I'm asking $5500 obo without the prop. There are very few of these used F70s on the market and new ones retail for $8900. This has been a fantastic outboard that cruised my skiff at 28mph and only burned 3gph. It has several thousand hours of Yamaha reliability left in it. E-mail me at gmckee1@hotmail.com or call 239-565-2960.

Saturday, December 28, 2013

My buddy Sam Peplinski from Atlanta landed this beautiful 9 lb. red out in Orange Pass today on a white Gulp Shrimp. Despite the excellent tides the redfish bite has been really slow over the past several days. This was the first over-slot red I've seen in more than a week even though we've had a ton of bait in the water and above normal temps. Another front is hitting us tomorrow but don't let that discourage you for looking for fish like this on the incoming tide, especially in the north part of Pine Island Sound.

Tuesday, December 24, 2013

Gavin, Brennan, and their dad Keith crushed the trout in Matlacha Pass.

Our last afternoon of near record warm temps really kicked the trout into gear. With a near record high of 85 yesterday and a late incoming tide, some big fish were hanging in their usual grassy spots in the north Pass. Everywhere we found mullet jumping around we also found the trout. White Gulp Jerk Shads are my favorite artificial for these fish and yesterday they actually worked better than live shrimp. It's going to drop back into the low 50's on Christmas day, which is actually close to normal for this time of year, so expect a bit of a slow down for a day or two until they readjust.

Tuesday, December 17, 2013

My buddy Capt. Mike Bartlett shared this with me yesterday and it's something I doubt anyone else has ever filmed before. It's definitely something I've never imagined seeing in all my years down in the Keys.

Saturday, December 14, 2013

Winter is here and before I get too busy I usually spend an
evening clearing out my fly box, which often turns into a neglected mess after
the slow months of the fall, and this year was no different.In fact, I wound up tossing out 2/3rds of
the patterns I had in there.There were so
many cool looking flies I whipped up myself and others had given me that had
never been tied on the end of a leader.It wasn’t that I didn’t believe they could catch fish, I just trusted a
handful of patterns so much more.

So that’s the subject of this month’s column.For the big four inshore species that top
every local fly angler’s list, tarpon, snook, redfish, and sea trout, I’ve
narrowed down my four best patterns to use for them in the waters off Pine
Island.

We’ll start with the easiest and most cooperative species
first, the sea trout.There isn’t much
this year-round gamefish won’t hit and my choice of fly for them is also an
easy one, the Clouser Minnow.This
simple pattern was originally tied for smallmouth bass on the Susquehanna River
but has been used to catch everything from bluegill to blue marlin.A hungry sea trout won’t hesitate to hit it
either.There’s no limit to the size and
color combinations for this streamer but the original chartreuse and white on a
#4 hook is by far the best bet.Clousers
are both effortless to tie and inexpensive to purchase, and that alone makes
them the perfect fly.If your entire box
is full of just this pattern in different sizes and colors, you’re in pretty
good shape no matter where you’re fishing.

Next up is the redfish, which is actually Florida’s most popular
gamefish since they’re found on every mile of the state’s shoreline.Like the sea trout, there isn’t much they
won’t hit but fly casting to tailing reds require a bit more effort.Spin anglers have used weedless gold spoons
with great success for more than a century and there are several modern flies
that do the job almost as well.My
favorites are the epoxy spoon patterns created by Capt. Jim Dupre.These are a great combination of flashy and
wobbly and rarely fail to get the attention of hungry redfish with its head in
the mud.They’re not cheap or easy to
make but they’re durable and last almost as long as their metal
counterparts.That’s why the Dupre Spoon
has become my favorite redfish fly.

Snook are far from an easy catch on a fly rod, especially
the big over-slot sized fish that cruise our shorelines and beaches.These are a one of the wariest inshore
species and they respond to live bait far better than artificials, especially
flies.My favorite fly for working them
out of the mangroves is a bulky Deceiver, a decades old pattern that, just like
the Clouser, is effective on every other gamefish in our waters.The Deceiver is a beautiful looking baitfish
imitation that is also surprisingly easy to tie and cast.There are countless variations to this fly
but for snook I like mine to be almost all white.

Finally we come to the tarpon, my favorite species to catch
on any tackle, especially fly rods.These massive fish eat almost anything but some of their most effective
flies imitate tiny worms.A red and
black Tarpon Bunny, which is nothing more than two pieces of rabbit fur tied to
a 2/0 Owner hook, has been my go-to fly for over ten years.This is another effortless pattern to tie and
I can whip one off my vise in less than a minute.It always amazes me to see a six foot long
fish attack one of these three inch long flies.Their migration is still a few months away but it’s not too early to
start filling the tarpon box.

So those are my four favorites for Pine Island.Ask ten other guides for theirs and you might
get forty different choices, but if you’re new to the sport it’s a place to
start.Good luck out there.

Friday, December 13, 2013

My friends Will and Liz up at Beavertail in Palmetto, FL have loaned me one of their latest 2014 Micro skiffs and I have it here on Pine Island to hit some of our negative-low flats for tailing reds and then show it off a bit. I'll be at Cape Tool and Tackle's annual open house and pig roast on Saturday, the 14th starting at 10AM. This is a really fun event thrown by one of the best bait and tackle shops in the area and located at 405 NE Pine Island Road in Cape Coral. There will several different seminars by local captains and some good deals in the tackle shop but the $5 plate of wild hog is more than worth the trip.

We unfortunately had to scrap plans to hold a full Demo Day on Matlacha this Sunday since Will and Liz are swamped with boat orders that need finished by New Years. Their crew is practically living at the shop these days. They also have two brand new Beavertail models in the works that will hopefully debut at the Miami Boat Show in Feb. I can't tell you much about them yet but when these two boats join the lineup in 2014 Beavertail will be the King Of The Hill as far as the inshore market is concerned.

Saturday, December 7, 2013

It was a little slow out in Matlacha Pass this afternoon during the incoming tide but the few fish we landed really decent. The 29" redfish went back in the water to make more redfish and the 22" trout went onto my grill to make dinner. Both of these fish hit white Gulp Jerk Shads. Absolutely gorgeous out there with near record warm weather and very low humidity. Great week coming up, too.

Wednesday, December 4, 2013

This is a shot I took about fifteen minutes after sunset tonight. We were there to see Santa but once again my daughter wouldn't go anywhere near him. I guess he is kind of intimidating but this scene was worth the trip.

Monday, December 2, 2013

December means one thing to me as a fishing guide here on
Pine Island:negative low tides.Seeing that little minus symbol in front of
the water levels on the tide chart, especially when the lows happen in the
early mornings and just before sunset, is almost as good as finding presents
under the tree on Christmas morning.These
are some of the best conditions to chase tailing redfish and almost every day
this month has a tide of 0.0 or lower.For die hard skinny water anglers this is as good as it gets.

My favorite times to hit these ultra-shallow flats are about
an hour before the bottom of the tide and then the first two hours of the
rising water.This is when I usually
find the redfish feeding most aggressively since their prey, which is mostly
crabs and finger mullet, is easily pinned to the bottom.This is also when the reds stick their tails
straight up into the air and start waving them like signal flags.It’s easily one of the coolest things you can
see out on the flats.

One other thing to look for out there that will help you
find hungry redfish are cruising stingrays.The bigger rays attract them like a magnet on certain flats in Pine
Island sound and I’ve seen more than a dozen reds hanging on their backs
waiting for a crab to flush from underneath.This is also a common behavior for other species of gamefish so it’s not
a bad idea to toss a lure or fly at any passing ray.Some of the biggest trout and jacks I’ve ever
seen have been landed this way. The rays
are easy creatures to spot on the negative low tides, too.Just look for the large pushes of water or even
their wingtips poking above the surface.

Last month I wrote about the best way to go after low tide
reds with flies, which is basically to bonk them right on the head with light
spoon patterns.That tactic obviously
won’t work if you’re throwing heavier artificials with spinning gear.One lure I’ve had great success with that
doesn’t spook them as easily are Gulp Jerk Shads rigged on weedless swim bait
hooks.These can be dropped right in a
school of feeding reds and usually get pounced on immediately.With 10 pound braid you can throw these light
Gulps very accurately and for a surprisingly long distance.And Gulps really are the one artificial that
actually does work better than live bait (most of the time.)

One last thing to know about working schools of fish on a
falling tide is to obviously approach them with caution, and I don’t mean that
in order to avoid spooking them.The
water during a negative low can disappear for a long time, especially on a
windy day after a cold front.It’s very
easy to get shoved up onto a flat or pole your way into an area while you’re chasing
tailers and not get back out, even in a very light skiff.This would be a really miserable experience
if it happened at sunset.Keep in mind
that the numbers you see on a tide chart are predictions and nothing more than
that.While very accurate, the depths
and times of posted tides can vary significantly, especially when strong winter
weather happens.Keep that in mind when
you’re fishing around negative lows this month and you’ll keep yourself out of
trouble.

Welcome to the Pine Island Angler. This blog is published from my home base on beautiful Matlacha, Florida where I run my guiding business Wildfly Charters. I started this site to provide regularly updated news about salt water flats fishing throughout Southwest Florida, the Keys, and many other Stateside and Caribbean locations. As a full time guide since 1995 I'm always looking for that next undiscovered spot or secret fly that will lead me to even better fishing and I'm happy to share what I find here on this site. I welcome any of your comments on all of my posts. Feel free to contact me with any questions by e-mail at gmckee1@hotmail.com or call me directly at (239)565-2960. Capt. Gregg McKee